1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to temporary tattoos and more particularly, to a temporary tattoo that is manufactured by an electronic digitized process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Throughout mankinds recorded history, various means have been used to decorate the human body for a variety of purposes. Today, body decoration is widespread throughout the world from the least to the most advanced technological societies.
Ash, clay, and colorants from plants are used to adorn the human body as a sign of status in society, as a beauty aid, as a decoration, to instill fear in opponents in the times of battle, and for religious purposes. These body decorations were often applied by crude means using sticks and leaves. Little had been known or considered about the safety of these materials. Decoration of the face, fingernails and lips are common throughout the world today, but the materials used for such purposes are closely regulated by many advanced societies because of the potentially hazardous nature of many colorants. Advanced societies recognize the potential skin penetrating toxicity of some of these materials and hence the regulation. Such materials may generate allergic reactions, bacterial infections, and the invasion of the body by toxic substances.
Tattoos have long been a part of these body decorations from the use of heat and metals to burn a design or marking into the skin to the modern needle method wherein non-fugitive dyes and pigments are injected under the skin, but shallow enough to be visible. These tattoos are painful to apply and difficult and costly to remove. For whatever reason they also carried a negative annotation with certain classes of western civilization.
Times have changed with respect to society's acceptance of tattoos. Especially in the 1980s and 1990s tattoos came into favor, especially if tastefully selected and applied to discrete locations on the body. Parents, instead of sneering at their children about even the idea of a tattoo may join them and take on a little design of their own. Tattoo parlors have moved from the seedy side to uptown in many more liberal communities. Part of this change in attitude is due to less painful application of modern needle tattoos. They are now less painful to remove. In addition, temporary tattoos have grown tremendously in popularity with children and some adults. Easy to apply and lasting only a few days, the designers and manufacturers of temporary tattoos have managed a wide array of attractive and interesting designs and broad base popular marketing. Many companies who would not have considered carrying the product a few years ago now sell millions of them as a premium in cereals, ice cream, chewing gum, snack foods and a host of other products. Furthermore, almost every drug store, supermarket and convenience store sells temporary tattoos. The transformation of this product from a transferrable dye of poor quality to a sticker masquerading as a tattoo then to a decal of very high quality has made the product en vogue and enhance the acceptability of permanent tattoos while gaining wide spread popularity for temporary tattoos.
Temporary tattoos today are manufactured either by offset and/or silkscreen conversion in sheet form. Both have gained commercial success. These methods require expensive and time consuming manufacturing of printing plates and conversion on large commercial printing presses for large runs of identical tattoos in order to make the production economical.
Applicant's invention relates to an electronic digitized method for manufacturing temporary tattoos which allows for the temporary tattoos to be custom made and does not require extensive manufacturing processes in order for the manufacture of temporary tattoos to become profitable and economically feasible in small quantities.